Chanticleer

Chanticleer's cool vocalizing is the perfect antidote to summertime blahs. This a cappella ensemble from the Bay Area not only sings with precision and flexibility but delivers with panache. For this Grant Park Festival concert--only eight months after the group's Orchestra Hall debut--the versatile 12-member Chanticleer (named after the Chaucerian rooster) has compiled a thick sampler with an accent on love. Almost in chronological order, the program opens with selections from the Renaissance (Dufay's "Gloria ad Modum Tubae" and Palestrina's "Gaude Barbara") and ends with a recent composition by a neomedievalist (John Tavener's 1995 "Village Wedding"). In between are such noteworthy items as "Magnificat a 12" by Andrea Gabrielli and "I Have Had Singing," a paean to English rustic life by a young American chorus director. The contemporary centerpiece, a Chanticleer commission, is "Canti d'Amor" from Bernard Rands, a Harvard prof best known for his establishment taste and meticulous craftsmanship. (Monteverdi's Altri canti d'amor served as an inspiration.) Tuesday, 7 PM, Petrillo Music Shell, Grant Park, Columbus and Jackson; 742-4763.

TED SHEN

Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo of Chanticleer by Nita Winter.